THE recent defence of Ireland’s track record
on waste disposal by Environment Minister Dick Roche left a lot to
be desired.

We have a waste management problem not because
we do not have incineration, but because of mismanagement of the waste
industry over the last 15 years or so, when many of the relevant EU
directives came into force.
There are many approaches to waste management which would produce
better results than incineration in the long term.

Unfortunately the Government has presented two
solutions: incineration or landfill. The ‘spin’ is that
because our dumps are almost full, we must now turn to incineration.
We could lead the way in waste management in Europe.

People want to feel they can make a difference,
but they can only do so with the support of the Government and local
authorities. Its time the Government told the truth about waste management
and stopped kowtowing to big business.

Anyone watching the BBC documentary ‘Toxic
Burn,’ shown recently, would realise that while mainland Europe
has incinerators, it also has huge problems with illegal tipping and
dumping. The answer is proper policing, hefty fines and the resources
to implement the law rigorously.

Our Government showed its true colours in the
last two budgets when it cut the funding to the EPA.